Essential Tools For Better DIY Guitar Tracks

When recording by yourself, these tools will make the job easier, and you'll get better results too

By Phil O'Keefe

One of the biggest challenges facing a guitarist who works solo on recordings is that they're alone. You simply don't have enough hands for all the things you need to do at once, and you can't be in two places at the same time. When you're working in a professional studio and recording guitar parts, things are a lot easier. You don't have to worry about running the equipment, which lets you concentrate on your playing. Because there's an engineer there to help, you can play while someone else worries about mic positioning and capturing the sound. When working alone, it can be challenging to try to play and simultaneously optimize your mic positioning. And commercial studios usually have the advantage of separate control and tracking rooms, which makes it easier to hear how changes in the mic positioning affect the sound, as well as how the sound of the guitar amp is "sitting" in the mix relative to the other parts. Let's look at a few ways you can get around some of these challenges when recording at home by yourself.


FIRST, THE SETUP

Maybe you have a great sounding room where your guitar amp really comes to life, but that is in a separate part of your house from your studio gear. In fact, most residences have a variety of acoustical environments available that many recordists never bother to take advantage of, simply because it's too much work to move everything. With the right tools, you can start to change that and take advantage of the variety of acoustical environments at your disposal, and without having to move all your recording equipment into another room.  

Running long guitar cables from room to room is a recipe for high frequency signal loss and increased noise interference… but recording tracks from the control room allows you to operate the gear easier, and to listen over studio monitors instead of headphones while the guitar speaker(s) remain isolated in the other room. One method is to keep the amp head in the control room, and just run a long speaker cable out to a speaker cabinet in the other room. That can work if the two rooms are relatively close to each other, and it offers the advantage of having the amp there in the control room where you can easily adjust it, but what if you're recording a combo amp?

To get around that, I recommend the Radial SGI (Studio Guitar Interface system) (Fig 1) or the Little Labs STD (Signal Transmission Device).

Figure 1: The Radial Engineering SGI allows you to run your amp up to 300 feet away without noise or signal loss


Both of these take the high impedance output from your guitar and convert it into a low impedance signal. The low impedance signal is then routed over an XLR cable, which is better suited for the long cable run. At the other end of the cable is a box that converts the signal back to the high impedance signal that your amp is designed for. (Fig 2) This allows you to isolate your guitar amp in another room where the acoustics might be better suited to the sound you're after, while you play in the control room where you can operate the equipment and monitor over your nearfield speakers.  

Figure 2: A typical setup using the Radial SGI


LESS RUNNING BACK AND FORTH

If you have the amp isolated in an adjoining room, it's going to be difficult to hear how everything sounds over the speakers in real-time as you reposition the mic, and you'll need to go back and forth from the tracking room to your control / equipment room to check on how things sound. If you're working with the amp in the same room as you are, you're forced to wear headphones so that the studio speakers aren't also picked up by the microphone. With a loud guitar amp nearby, it can sometimes be tough to discern the subtle differences that small changes in mic position can give you while listening on headphones. Short of recording "direct", or using a amp simulator, how do you get around these issues?

First of all, stick with closed back, circumaural headphones. Closed-back (sealed) circumaural (over and around the ear) headphones with good isolation block much of the sound around you from reaching your ears, allowing you to better hear the sound change as you're dialing in the best mic positions. Headphones with great passive isolation include the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro, Direct Sound EX-29 Extreme Isolation (Fig 3), and KRK's KNS 8400. All of these headphones feature around 30 dB of attenuation of outside sounds.

Figure 3: Headphones like the Direct Sound EX-29 Extreme Isolation models shown here help block out external sounds so you can hear what you're doing, even with a loud amp nearby


If the amp is really loud, it can still be kind of hard to hear the sonic changes as you adjust the mic positioning, but there are ways around that too. If you find yourself in that situation, try using a pair of noise isolating earbuds or earphones ("ear plug" style headsets), and then put a pair of unplugged headphones with good isolation characteristics on over them. Since the headphones only serve to add additional isolation from outside sounds, and don't provide any of the actual sound you'll be listening to, you can even use "shooter's ear muff" style hearing protection in this application instead of headphones. The best isolation results will be with earbuds that fit well and seal snugly into the ear canal, coupled with the best isolating headphones you have available. The in-ear earphones send the sound straight into your ear canals, and their already excellent isolation (from the way they "seal" into your ear canal) is increased by the external closed-backed headphones. Hearing protection ear muffs are available from companies such as Pro Ears, Peltor, Remington, and 3M, and can be found in most sporting goods stores. Since they lack any drivers or wiring, they typically cost significantly less than a set of headphones with similar isolation characteristics.

Earbuds with excellent isolation include the Shure SE215 (Fig 4), and the Etymotic ER-4 - both of which can provide a whopping 35 dB or more of reduction on their own. When paired with a set of closed back headphones such as one of the models I mentioned earlier, outside sounds can be cut by an additional 6 to 10 dB or more. This level of attenuation is similar to what you'll get if you have the amp closed off in one room of your house while you're in the adjoining room with the doors shut.

Figure 4: In-ear headsets, such as the Shure SE215 can provide even more acoustic isolation when worn "under" a pair of sealed, circumaural headphones


NOT ENOUGH HANDS?

Ideally, you'll need to have the sound coming out of the amp while you're trying to position your microphones. In pro studios, it's not uncommon for an assistant to move the mic around as you play, while the engineer listens over the control room monitors and directs; telling the assistant which direction to move the mic until they're satisfied with the mic position and sound. Obviously this is less practical when working alone. Yes, you could ask a friend or family member to help out occasionally, but for those times when you're on your own, there's another solution - use a looper pedal to "play" the guitar while you make adjustments to mic positions and overall sound.

Some popular loopers include the TC Electronic Ditto (Fig 5), Boss RC-3, Line 6 JM4 and the DigiTech JamMan Solo XT, but you may already own a looper. Many multi effects pedals include looping functions, such as the Zoom G3, Boss ME-70, and the one I use - the Line 6 M9.

Figure 5: Loopers like the TC Electronic Ditto allow you to "play" the guitar while freeing up your hands to adjust the mic positioning


Any one of these looping tools will allow you to record a riff or phrase and then play it back over and over, freeing up your hands so you can adjust the mic positioning and fine tune the control settings on your amp for best results. Because you're not stuck in one place, you can even go back and forth between the amp room to adjust the mic position, and then to the control room or recording equipment room to check on how it sounds over your monitors. Ideally you should use the looper to record a snippet of the song and part you're preparing to track, so that you can hear how things work with what you'll actually be recording.

As you can see, with a little forethought and the right tools, you can get past many of the limitations that come from recording alone. By using these suggestions, you will be able to hear what you're doing much better, which nearly always translates to better sounding recordings. Now go wax some killer tracks, and when you're done, don't forget to stop by the forums and share them with everyone!

Phil O'Keefe is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / producer and the Associate Editor of Harmony Central. He has engineered, produced and performed on countless recording sessions in a diverse range of styles, with artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Jules Day, Voodoo Glow Skulls, John McGill, Michael Knott and Alexa's Wish. He is a former featured monthly columnist for EQ magazine, and his articles and product reviews have also appeared in Keyboard, Electronic Musician and Guitar Player magazines.